1 `Verily, verily, I say to you, He who is not entering through the door to the fold of the sheep, but is going up from another side, that one is a thief and a robber;
2 and he who is entering through the door is shepherd of the sheep;
3 to this one the doorkeeper doth open, and the sheep hear his voice, and his own sheep he doth call by name, and doth lead them forth;
4 and when his own sheep he may put forth, before them he goeth on, and the sheep follow him, because they have known his voice;
5 and a stranger they will not follow, but will flee from him, because they have not known the voice of strangers.'
6 This similitude spake Jesus to them, and they knew not what the things were that he was speaking to them;
7 Jesus said therefore again to them, `Verily, verily, I say to you -- I am the door of the sheep;
8 all, as many as came before me, are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them;
9 I am the door, through me if any one may come in, he shall be saved, and he shall come in, and go out, and find pasture.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on John 10
Commentary on John 10 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 10
In this chapter we have,
Jhn 10:1-18
It is not certain whether this discourse was at the feast of dedication in the winter (spoken of v. 22), which may be taken as the date, not only of what follows, but of what goes before (that which countenances this is, that Christ, in his discourse there, carries on the metaphor of the sheep, v. 26, 27, whence it seems that that discourse and this were at the same time); or whether this was a continuation of his parley with the Pharisees, in the close of the foregoing chapter. The Pharisees supported themselves in their opposition to Christ with this principle, that they were the pastors of the church, and that Jesus, having no commission from them, was an intruder and an impostor, and therefore the people were bound in duty to stick to then, against him. In opposition to this, Christ here describes who were the false shepherds, and who the true, leaving them to infer what they were.
Jhn 10:19-21
We have here an account of the people's different sentiments concerning Christ, on occasion of the foregoing discourse; there was a division, a schism, among them; they differed in their opinions, which threw them into heats and parties. Such a ferment as this they had been in before (ch. 7:43; 9:16); and where there has once been a division again. Rents are sooner made than made up or mended. This division was occasioned by the sayings of Christ, which, one would think, should rather have united them all in him as their centre; but they set them at variance, as Christ foresaw, Lu. 12:51. But it is better that men should be divided about the doctrine of Christ than united in the service of sin, Lu. 11:21. See what the debate was in particular.
Jhn 10:22-38
We have here another rencounter between Christ and the Jews in the temple, in which it is hard to say which is more strange, the gracious words that came out of his mouth or the spiteful ones that came out of theirs.
Jhn 10:39-42
We have here the issue of the conference with the Jews. One would have thought it would have convinced and melted them, but their hearts were hardened. Here we are told,